LOUISIANA – April Greenman remembers being struck by historic Louisiana as she drove through town many years ago.

“I have a love for these buildings. I drove through this town when I was 19 years old. I didn’t know anybody up here. It was for business — I was driving an electrical engineer around to get right of way.”

“I hit Louisiana and I don’t know what possessed me. I was moved very deeply. I said to the engineer, ‘I’m going live here one day,” Greenman said.

Now she’s getting ready to move her business — a storefront offering overflow from her online retail business — into one of the building’s that impressed her all those years ago.

Some serious equipment was needed to paint the uppermost parts of the building. Courtesy photo

The storefront on Georgia Street will be a home for items that don’t fit in the company’s online store: unique items, for instance, that can’t be listed and sold multiple times online.

She has been working in the resale business since 1998. She started selling used china to china-replacement companies, a business that allowed her to build up connections with dealers in the industry.

Greenman had previously operated a location at Christopher Tire Shop in Louisiana.

The building before it was painted. Courtesy photo.

The building after the painting was completed. Courtesy photo.

Greenman said she and her husband had owned several Georgia Street buildings, including Greenman Relics’ new home, in the early 2000s. Given the pressure of a full-time job each and the difficulty of complying with historical preservation guidelines, they eventually sold the buildings.

Now, more than a decade later, she’s back. Greenman plans to open the business when work on the building is done, which she believes could be in about a month.

She hopes ths location will be part of the process or reknitting Louisiana’s cityscape.

“I’ve always believed in the town of Louisiana. I think that with a little bit of pride and a little bit of love we can bring it back to what it once was,” Greenman said.